New to Motion, how do I fade a title in and out? - I have used fade in and out to no effect. Thanks

Fades are created by animating the the opacity of the layer. The easiest way to do this is the fade in/fade out behavior, in the Basic behavior category. You should be able to apply it to a text layer and it will automatically fit to the length of the layer. Make sure the behavior equals the length the text layer. Also make sure you have the fade in/out times greater than 0 in the behavior parameter.

http://help.apple.com/motion/mac/5.2/#/motn1374800f

The other way to fade a layer, which takes a little more work is to animate the opacity parameter manually You would create a keyframe with a value of zero, move to the point you want the fade to end and change the opacity to 100%. For a fade out, you'd just do the reverse.

The behavior is by far the fastest and easiest way to fade a layer. If it's not working, perhaps you can post a screen shot showing your timeline? It would be much easier to make suggestions being able to see your setup.